In order and with commentary for your reading pleasure, I present part 3 of 3 of my GeekyCon 2015 livetweet!
If you were following my livetweet…live, then you might have had a few moments of confusion as some tweets posted out of order, and a couple not at all. Blame the internet. Blame how many tweets per minute I was sending. Blame the Geeky Gods.
And prepare for some pretty awful typos. Continue reading
In order and with commentary for your reading pleasure, I present part 2 of 3 of my GeekyCon 2015 livetweet!
If you were following my livetweet…live, then you might have had a few moments of confusion as some tweets posted out of order, and a couple not at all. Blame the internet. Blame how many tweets per minute I was sending. Blame the Geeky Gods.
And prepare for some pretty awful typos. Continue reading
In order and with commentary for your reading pleasure, I present part 1 of 3 of my GeekyCon 2015 livetweet!
If you were following my livetweet…live, then you might have had a few moments of confusion as some tweets posted out of order, and a couple not at all. Blame the internet. Blame how many tweets per minute I was sending. Blame the Geeky Gods.
And prepare for some pretty awful typos. Continue reading
If you’ve seen the new Dreamworks film Home starring the vocal stylings of Jim Parsons and Rihanna, you might be surprised to learn that it was adapted from a 420-page children’s novel. While the movie is highly entertaining, heartfelt and accessible to all ages, as you might imagine it simplifies the story and loses some fantastic thematics in the process.
The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex is written in essay form by the main character, Gratuity Tucci, an eleven year old who had to grow up rather quickly due to her somewhat-flaky single mother…and her mother’s alien abduction which leaves her to make her own way to Florida. You see, when an alien race called the Boov invades, they first need humans to teach them English (humans like Gratuity’s mother) and next they use their new-found English skills to tell all humans…
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If you’re anything like me coming off of Oscar season, you have a long list of films that are now on your To Watch list (okay, you had that list on the journey up to the Oscars, but it’s ever more important now that the films have actually won something). I know it’s tempting to prioritize that list by which films won the most awards (those are surely the best ones, right?), but if you were to ask my opinion, Still Alice belongs at the top.
Sure, it’s not flashy like the other winners. Birdman looks like it’s filmed all in one shot. The Grand Budapest Hotel has that traditional Wes Anderson look. The Theory of Everything is the story of someone with a household name.
And Still Alice is about a fictional women with early onset Alzheimer’s disease. This is not a feel good movie. In fact, I started crying about ten minutes in and didn’t stop until the end. But it’s simple and insightful and full of performances that make the characters as real as anyone. That’s the point. Alice might not be real, but her story shows us the struggle of the 5 million people in the United States diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
It’s no coincidence that the only awards Still Alice was nominated for were for Julianne Moore as Best Actress or that she won every time, not just at the Oscars, but the Golden Globes, the BAFTAs, the SAG Awards, and the Critic’s Choice Awards. The film is told from Alice’s perspective, which is why Moore’s role is so important (though I would argue that Glatzer and Westmoreland’s direction is worth some awards as well). She is the movie, it all hangs on her character, on her performance, and dear god does she deliver. The character goes through so many emotions in such rapid succession, each with its own layers of what she is actually feeling and what she wants her family to see. Amazingly, Julianne Moore pulls all this complexity off beautifully.
The story itself has a fairly simple concept that packs a big punch. Alice is a linguistics professor at Columbia University whose career, life and self-worth is partially tied to her intelligence. Education is a priority with her and her doctor husband, something they have managed to pass on to two of their three children. So when Alice’s memory starts to slip, she feels like her identity is being taken from her. In a semi-ironic twist, the person who most understands her isolation is her wayward, non-collegiate daughter played by Kristen Stewart in an equally moving performance.
Still Alice is based on the novel by Lisa Genova, who has a degree biopsychology and a PhD in neuroscience. Still Alice was her first novel, but since then she has tackled other types of cognitive impairments in Left Neglected, Love Anthony and her upcoming novel Inside the O’Briens.
I have not read the book myself and I’m not sure that I’m planning to (if I cried that much in the movie, I might die of dehydration reading the book), but the film did make me want to check out Genova’s other novels. From what I can tell, they are each written from the perspective of the impaired person, giving voice and insight to people suffering with not being able to express themselves.
That’s what I took away from the film – the frustration, anger and embarrassment that comes from not being able to say what Alice wants to say, from simple everyday thoughts to what she’s going through overall. Such insight and understanding should surely be enough to move this to the top of your list of films to see.
I have a new obsession and her name is Yulin Kuang.
That sounds creepy, but if there’s one thing I think I can trust internet fandom with, I hope it’s understanding that stage where you have just discovered a new creator and then must proceed to watch everything they have ever created. This has recently happened to me when I came across Shipwrecked‘s series Kissing in the Rain.
Kissing in the Rain is a transmedia YouTube project of the Shipwrecked team that includes Yulin Kuang, Sinead Persaud and Sean Persaud. It’s first chapter has just concluded and chapter two is due to begin May 5. Chapter one followed actors James and Lily, played by Mary Kate Wiles and Sean Persaud, as they are frequently cast as romantic leads in films that have them kissing in the rain. Each episode starts with the movie scene leading up to the kiss and then the director yells cut and the couple reverts to the actors awkwardly trying to fill the post-kiss silence.
The transmedia bit comes in with the encouragement and canonization of fan fiction. With each episode Yulin Kuang releases a companion drabble to add to the story of the two actors and then fans follow her lead. After going through the related tumblr tags and reading what the fans come up with, Yulin decides what to canonize and it gets reblogged on the official Shipwrecked tumblr and is official canon from that point forward.
If you’re interested in starting to watch, there is a very helpful post that pulls everything together here. There’s just a week until chapter two starts which will be following a different set of actors, Audrey and Henry, played by Sinead Persaud and Sairus Graham.
But at the risk of sounding like an infomercial, that’s not all! After I got caught up on Kissing in the Rain, I needed more, so I moved on to a previous Shipwrecked series called A Tell Tale Vlog where Sean Persaud takes on the role of Edgar Allan Poe as he vlogs, writes poetry of questionable quality and gets haunted by Lady Lenore played by Sinead Persaud. EA Poe tends to bring to mind thoughts of a rather somber nature and Shipwrecked expertly takes advantage of that, turning somber into hilariously awkward. There’s even something of a crossover in the last episode with Kissing in the Rain episode 4, which just happens to be my favorite.
And if you thought that I stopped there, you haven’t been paying attention. After finishing A Tell Tale Vlog, I moved on to Yulin Kuang’s personal YouTube page where she has a series called I Didn’t Write This and various other original projects, including a trailer for an upcoming short film called Irene Lee, Girl Detective. But since this is a blog that focuses on adaptations, I think I should at least try to pretend that is what I’m doing.
In I Didn’t Write This, Yulin creates visual representations for poetry such as T.S. Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and excerpts from novels like John Green’s Looking For Alaska. A personal favorite of mine is her adaptation of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116 and among the few videos that I haven’t watched yet is an excerpt from Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl as I fear the potential spoilers. Even if poetry isn’t your thing, I seriously suggest watching and continuing to follow this series. Yulin’s videos are gorgeously created and will make you feel things, just like the rest of her work.
Finally, Shipwrecked used their week off from Kissing in the Rain to release their newest project- a music video featuring Mrs. Rochester from Jane Eyre as she sings a parody if “When Will My Life Begin” from Tangled. Titled Bertha’s Attic Song, Sinead Persaud plays Rochester’s neglected wife as she toes the line between her distress, her insanity and her obsession with fire. They even work in a little crossover at the end with Alysson Hall of The Autobiography of Jane Eyre web-series.
If you’d made it this far, I do hope that something on this list of creations has caught your eye enough for you to delve into the world of Yulin Kuang and Shipwrecked. Everything that I’ve seen so far has been impeccably executed with an obvious passion for film making and that sense of fun which keeps you wanting to see more.
Let us know in the comments if you’ve already been following one or all of these projects or if something in particular caught your eye. You can also talk to us on Twitter @AdaptationCast and Tumblr.
Back in September when we made our Adaptations We Wish Existed vlog, I smugly suggested that my pick, Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan was the most likely to happen given all the recent press on The Fault in Our Stars adaptation. Well, I got the author right, just not the book.
Earlier this week, Deadline announced that the team behind the TFIOS movie will be joining up again to bring John Green’s Paper Towns to the screen. Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber will once again take on the challenge of writing the screenplay while Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey will reprise their roles as producers. This time, however, John Green himself will be getting a executive producer credit. In addition, Nat Wolff who plays Isaac in TFIOS will be stepping into the center of Paper Towns as the main character, Quentin.
While it might seem presumptuous to sign the team up for another project when the TFIOS film is still two months away from release, Green comes complete with a built in audience that leaves no doubt of the film’s success, at least in the number of fans that will run out to see it opening weekend. How well they like it will be another story, but if the author’s reaction is anything to go by, it will be amazing.
Following the announcement of the Paper Towns film, Green wrote about his experience with TFIOS and his confidence in the team:
The experience of making The Fault in Our Stars was really wonderful because of the people involved: They all brought their talent and professionalism to the story and I’m so proud of the movie they made.
It was all so fun and magical (and frankly so different from my previous Hollywood experiences) that to be honest I wasn’t particularly keen to make another movie—unless I could work again with people I really trust.
And now it has happened!
I’ve already admitted that Paper Towns wasn’t my first choice for a second John Green novel adaptation, but that doesn’t make me any less excited about the announcement. Especially since the writing team was also behind (500) Days of Summer, a film that attempts to dismantle the manic-pixie-dream-girl trope just as Paper Towns does.
Still, I’m not giving up hope that one day I’ll get to see Tiny Cooper on the big screen.
Right on the heels of the release of Veronica Mars– a Kickstarter-funded film that provoked many in entertainment media to ask if this will change the future of film- another exciting Kickstarter has made it’s pitch to the public.
Director Vincent Regan is asking for help funding the production on his independent feature film Enemy of Man, an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth that already has an A-list cast committed to it. Sean Bean will take on the tragic title role, while big names actors Charles Dance, James D’Arcy and Rupert Grint will be playing Duncan, Banquo and Rosse respectively.
As I’m writing this, the project has 16 days left and just under half of it’s $250,000 goal has been pledged. But director and cast haven’t just been sitting around in the beginning stages of the project waiting for funds. They’ve already shot an 8-minute proof of concept film and a teaser trailer to show backers what the film will look like. The full 8-minute film, called Instruments of Darkness is available for a $10 pledge to the Kickstarter.
While that trailer does send a chill of excitement through me, the video pitch for the Kickstarter itself is what really sold me on this project. Regan’s passion for the story told in Macbeth comes across strongly as he talks about adapting it and the cast itself seems to really believe in the script. Sean Bean describes it as “not word-heavy” Shakespeare and Regan says that he added a bit more action. That originally made me weary as it seems a very Hollywood thing to do.
But he won me over with his reasons for funding through Kickstarter. With the cast that is attached to the project, I imagine that it wouldn’t be overly difficult to sell the idea to a studio and go through traditional funding methods. But Regan came to Kickstarter because he believes that his vision falls outside of what the industry would be willing to take a chance on. Instead of changing his vision, he is changing his methods.
Watch the video for yourself at the Kickstarter page.
After the Veronica Mars Kickstarter success, most articles focused their industry predictions on cult-followings, on shows like VM that ended too soon. Not to say that Shakespeare doesn’t have his own group of fans, but I’m not sure this is what they had in mind. And that makes me even more excited about the possibilities.
The film industry is in the business of making money and so it’s hard to blame it too much for sticking to the tried and true formulas. But I think that we can all agree that it has gotten stuck in a rut with those formulas and that is why seeing projects like this pop up seems to fill the air with promises to shake things up.
I encourage you all to head over to the Kickstarter for Enemy of Man and give it a look through, even if you’re not interested or able to contribute. If you are interested in backing it, $15 and up with get you a digital copy of the feature film, which isn’t much higher than a theater ticket. They are also offering exclusive t-shirts, posters, and concept art.
When I got to the end of episode 24 of Emma Approved and saw that I had to wait until February for a new video, I didn’t think I’d make it, especially when it ended with an uncharacteristically defeated Emma being comforted by a sweet rather than snarky Knightley. Like a lot of other fans, I filled the void by rewatching the series, multiple times, to pick up on the things that I may have missed the first time around. And now, on this our last Emma-less Thursday, I wanted to get out some thoughts about the series so far.
I have to admit first off, that it took me some time to get into the series and that made me very nervous. The Lizzie Bennet Diaries had me hooked from the first video, but with Emma Approved I was letting the videos stack up for a week or two before I caught up. Happily, I have moved past that phase and am now firmly in the refreshing-my-feed-every-Monday-and-Thursday-for-the-new-video phase. It’s a grand yet torturous place to be.
But the hiatus has given me time to think about why there was such a difference between the two. Emma needs set up. The story itself and the character take time to get into. In The Lizzie Bennet Diaries the set up is just about introducing characters, most of which live under one roof and whose situation in life is familiar to most of us. But Emma’s world is different. The story hinges on the audience really understanding her world, her place in it and her flaws. Emma Approved even took it upon themselves to add additional setup that wasn’t in the original novel in the form of Annie’s hesitations about her marriage to Ryan. It gave us time to see how Emma works, how she schemes and how much she trusts that her own point of view is the only point of view. And it gives us time to fall in love with her despite her intensity so that when she falls, we’re rooting for her to get back up.
Before Emma Approved started, we did a podcast on Jane Austen’s novel where we tried to predict what the big mystery was going to be in the series. For The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, we spent most of our time speculating how Lydia’s story would be modernized, but we couldn’t quite put our finger on what the Emma equivalent was. At 24 episodes in, I’m still not convinced that there is that One Big Thing, but I think I’m having just as much fun with the little story tweaks. The note and concert tickets taking the place of Elton’s riddle. The song taking the place of the painting of Harriet (which I find exceedingly more believable than Clueless’s “I have the picture you took in my locker” moment). It’s all the little misunderstandings leading to the big reveals that create the tone for Emma, and Emma Approved is hitting that note perfectly with those cringe-worthy, look through your fingers, second-hand embarrassing moments. I will admit that I had to watch the Emma versus Senator Elton showdown in small intervals while taking deep breaths.
While I do love where we’re at so far with the series, there are a few things that have been bothering me about how Emma’s world fits together and how that world fits into ours.
In Austen’s novel, Emma and her father hold the highest status position in their town of Highbury, second only to Mr. Knightley. Mr. Elton, however, is a bit lower on the totem pole, to the point where Emma is a bit insulted that he thinks he has a chance with her. In Emma Approved, we are given the impression that Emma runs with a pretty elite crowd, but the status equivalencies of the other characters are a little messy after that, especially in the case of Senator Elton. While his status does make him almost laughably uninterested in Harriet, it also makes him much higher than Emma and Knightley, which is a bit disappointing. I suppose it’s a lesser plot change, but it does change the dynamics between the characters a bit. Even Knightly being more equal with Emma rathat than higher than her is a slight change to their relationship that could have some consequences down the road.
While we’re talking about everyone’s place, the other thing I find a bit confusing is the videos themselves. When the series started, a lot of people were asking how the videos fit into the world of Emma Approved and the creators made this post to explain it. To sum it up, Emma is recording the footage for her future documentary, but the edited videos that we see do not exist in-world. So the characters know that they are being recorded, but the videos are not publicly available as far as they are concerned. This cleared up my original confusion, but also saddened me because I thought that meant that we wouldn’t get any Q&A videos, which were some of my favorite videos in The LBD.
But apparently we can have Q&A videos, as we’ve now seen two of them. But I don’t understand how people are sending in questions for Emma and Knightley to answer in videos that they are not supposed to have seen. Earlier this week, there was an advice blog post written by Knightley and that seemed to make a bit more sense. Of course Emma would run a blog for her company. But the videos also get posted on the blog, which further messes up the fact that these videos don’t technically exist or at least haven’t been edited by lovely documentary makers yet.
I can understand the disparity from a creator’s viewpoint. They want the blog to be a place where viewers can go to get all the new Emma Approved content. And since The Lizzie Bennet Diaries was heralded for it’s interactivity with the fans, they wouldn’t want to give that up either. But I still can’t deny that it makes my head spin to think about the logistics.
With all that said, I’m really just ready for this hiatus to be over so I can get some more lovely and occasionally cringe-worthy content. And I’m also ready for my standing ovation for getting through this whole post without dubbing anything as “so Emma approved.”
I’m not sure that it’s common knowledge that The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is adapted from a short story, but the current film is actually the second attempt to tell Walter’s story on film. The original short story was written by James Thurber in 1942, a film adaptation starring the comedic and musically-inclined Danny Kaye was made in 1947 and the recently released film has Ben Stiller both directing and starring in the title role. So, last week I made a day of it, reading the story and watching both films. And for your informative pleasure, I am now going to review all three, sans spoilers.
As November 16th approaches, we are bound to be getting more and more sneak peeks at the final installment in the Twilight Saga to ramp up the excitement. We’ve already seen a few teasers, but now a full theatrical trailer has been released for Breaking Dawn Part 2 on the Official Twilight YouTube channel.
In just over two minutes, the trailer outlines the danger that the Cullens once again find themselves in, this time because of Edward and Bella’s unexpected offspring, and how they are attempting to prevent it. It gives a quick look at several of the covens that are coming to their aid and some serious fighting towards the end. It seems like fans might finally get the battle they were denied in the book.
I have to say, I was excited to see that there might be a battle at the end to make the climax less of a non-event. And also to see that little exchange between Kate and Garrett.
Are you excited for the apparent changes to the storyline? What was your favorite part of the trailer?
Leave you answers in the comments!
Based on the crime novel Cogan’s Trade by George V. Higgins comes Brad Pitt’s new flick Killing Them Softly, the trailer of which hit earlier this week. Pitt plays Jackie Cogan, an enforcer hired by the mob to track down the men who robbed one of their high-stakes card games.
The film is adapted and directed by Andrew Dominik and in addition to Pitt, it stars Ray Liotta, Richard Jenkins and James Gandolfini. It is set to release September 21 in the UK and October 19 in the US.
What do you think of the trailer?
Leave your comments below!
Following the example of the recently wrapped up Batman series, the new trailer for Man of Steel gives us a little darker image of the iconic Superman. This was foreshadowed back in July with the release of the poster which showed a shadow-covered Henry Cavill sporting a suit seemingly made of chain-mail. Check out the teaser below:
With producer Christopher Nolan receiving a story writing credit for the film, alongside David S. Goyer as screenwriter, the team working on the film is sure to make it something special. And with General Zod credited as the villain for Zack Snyder’s new adaptation, it might be following Nolan’s formula even closer by providing an origin story for the Justice-League-bound superhero.
Though the trailer only gives us a look at front-man Henry Cavill, the film will also star Amy Adams, Russell Crowe, Kevin Costner, Laurence Fishburne, and Diane Lane. It is set to release June 14, 2013.
We reported back in June that the adaptation of David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas would be released October 26th. At the time, we really only knew about the book and it’s unique structure consisting of six nested stories. Now we have a bit more information about the upcoming film and an intense trailer to hike up the excitement.
The writers and directors, Tom Twkyer, Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski, released a five-minute long trailer for their new film, including a little intro of them explaining how they decided to make the film in the first place.
And now for the trailer.
The film certainly has an all-star cast which includes Tom Hanks, Hugo Weaving, Susan Sarandon, Halle Berry, Jim Sturgess, Hugh Grant and Jim Broadbent. The poster, which was also recently released, highlights the extensive cast:
With all this new content, are you getting excited for the film? Leave your thoughts on the trailer in the comments.
Life of Pi, a novel by Yann Martel published in 2001, tells the story of a boy who survives a massive shipwreck and travels around on a small boat with the only other living survivor, a Bengal tiger. The film version, directed by Ang Lee, just released it’s first trailer.
To be released November 21st in the US and December 21st in the UK, the film stars Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Kahn and Tobey Maguire. According to IMDB Maguire is cast as author Yann Martel, so it will be interesting to see how screenwriter David Magee works him in.
Does the trailer make you want to see the film? Or perhaps read the book?
Adaptation will be covering the book and film in upcoming episodes, so stayed tuned!
Following up on the release of the gorgeous posters and the riveting trailer for the upcoming adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, director Joe Wright has released a six minute clip from the film.
The film will be released September 7th in the UK and November 9th in the US. It stars Kiera Knightley, Jude Law, Aaron Johnson, Kelly Macdonald and Matthew Macfadyen.
Following this clip, I’m really interested to see how the film comes together as a whole. The filming seems a little abrupt to me, but in a stylistic way that might make more sense when we can see it all from the beginning.
What do you think of this clip?
It’s been a long wait, but finally Finnick Odair has been cast for next year’s Catching Fire. There have been so many names flying around lately, but Lionsgate has finally narrowed it down to one. And the part of the flirtatious fisherman goes to…
Sam Claflin!
You may recognize him as Snow White’s childhood friend from Snow White and the Huntsman or maybe as Philip from Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.
If you’ve been listening to our podcasts, it will be no surprise to you that this is a welcome bit of casting for the Adaptation team. I hadn’t considered this before now, but I’m certainly not disappointed and I think that Claflin will be able to bring the right attitude to the role.
What do you think about this casting? Is he what you expected?
But no worries, this article is spoiler free.
According to Film Drunk, last night while Letterman was interviewing Anne Hathaway, his excitement over the new installment in Christopher Nolan’s franchise caused him to say something that spoiled a big plot point in the film. There is debate as to whether the statement was simply a joke, but many think it was a genuine slip.
The Film Drunk article is also spoiler free, but it includes the video of the slip, so if you want to see for yourself head over and watch. I personally, want to remain spoiler free, so I can’t comment on whether Letterman’s statement seemed like a joke, although I admit it is very tempting.
Are you going to watch?
Tell us in the comments, but please leave any spoilers out of your answer.
Earlier this week, we reported that Sir Anthony Hopkins joined the cast of Darren Aronofsky’s adaptation of the biblical story Noah’s Ark. Now, Aronofsky has given a first look at the set.
He tweeted a picture with the text, ‘I dreamt about this since I was 13. And now it’s a reality. Genesis 6:14.’
For those that haven’t memorized their scripture, Genesis 6:14 reads, ‘So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out’ (NIV).
Also in the cast are actors Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Emma Watson and Logan Lerman. For more details, see the announcement we posted previously.
This set is a dream come true for Aronofsky. What do you think of it?
Leave your thoughts in the comments!
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